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Ogden Mills Reid

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Ogden Mills Reid
Reid, c. 1912
Born(1882-05-16)May 16, 1882
New York City, U.S.
DiedJanuary 3, 1947(1947-01-03) (aged 64)
New York City, U.S.
EducationBrowning School
University of Bonn
Alma materYale University
Yale Law School
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1911)​
Children3, including Whitelaw, Ogden
Parent(s)Whitelaw Reid
Elisabeth Mills Reid
RelativesJean Templeton Ward (sister)
Ogden L. Mills (cousin)
Gladys L. Mills (cousin)
Jane B. Mills (cousin)
Darius Ogden Mills (grandfather)
Ogden Mills (uncle)

Ogden Mills Reid (May 16, 1882 – January 3, 1947)[1] was an American newspaper publisher who was president of the New York Herald Tribune.[2]

Early life

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Reid was born on May 16, 1882, in Manhattan. He was the son of Elisabeth (née Mills) Reid (1857–1931)[3] and Whitelaw Reid (1837–1912), the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain and France and 1892 Republican vice presidential candidate.[4] His sister was Jean Templeton Reid,[5] who married Sir John Hubert Ward,[6] the son of William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley, in 1908.[7][8][9]

His maternal grandfather was Darius Ogden Mills, at one time the richest man in California, and his uncle was Ogden Mills, a prominent New York Society man.[10] Through his uncle, he was a cousin of twins Gladys Livingston Mills, the thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder who married Henry Carnegie Phipps and Beatrice Forbes, Countess of Granard, who married Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard, as well as Ogden Livingston Mills, the 50th Secretary of the Treasury.

He attended the Browning School in New York, the University of Bonn in Germany, and graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in 1904 and a law degree in 1907.[1]

Reid was an early member of the Yale swim team, perhaps "Yale's first great swimmer."[11] For a time after graduation, he supported the team financially and even helped coach the team.[11]

Career

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Following his graduation from Yale Law School, he spent a year abroad as secretary to his father when he was the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain.[1] Upon his return to the U.S., he worked at the New York Tribune beginning in 1908 as a reporter.[12] The paper was founded in 1841 by Horace Greeley.[13] He was an employee there, working in all of the various departments as assistant to the city editor and assistant night editor,[1] until 1912, when, on his father's death he was named editor.[1] Reid was a zealous defender of the freedom of the press, and was quoted in 1931 at a commencement address at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, as saying:

There is a much more serious side to the problem of newspapers striving honestly to print all the news. It is the occasional forces to muzzle sources of information. This strikes at the freedom of the press without which our country would fall to a par with Soviet Russia, where subsidized and rigorously controlled governmental organs publish only the favorable side of the picture. Every move in our country on the part of the Government in this direction has failed, and, I believe, will always fail. If ever it does not, then we have real cause for worry. If newspaper independence dies, honest and efficient government dies with it.[1]

In 1924, he purchased the New York Herald for $5,000,000 ($70,513,264 in 2023), combining them to create New York Herald Tribune.[14] In 1932, the combined paper became profitable, and remained profitable until Reid's death in 1947.[1]

From 1930 to 1932, Reid served as Commodore of the St. Regis Yacht Club on the Upper St. Regis Lake.[1]

Personal life

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Helen and Ogden Reid, 1920

In 1911,[15] Reid married Helen Miles Rogers at the Racine College Chapel in Racine, Wisconsin.[16][17] She was the daughter of Benjamin Talbot Rogers, a prominent Wisconsin merchant, and his wife Sarah Louise Johnson.[18] Helen graduated from Barnard College in 1903[2] and was social secretary for Reid's mother.[16][19][20] Together, they were the parents of:

Upon his mother's death in 1931, Reid inherited Camp Wild Air and a three-million-dollar trust fund.[1]

Reid died in the Harkness Pavilion at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.[1][13] His funeral was held at St. Thomas Church in New York and he was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown, New York.[23] Following his death, his widow took over as president of the New-York Tribune.[16][24][25] His estate was valued at $9,478,112 ($101,567,814 in 2023), of which $5,780,702 ($61,946,226 in 2023) was given to the Reid Foundation, a non-taxable charitable foundation.[26]

Honors and awards

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Reid was honored by the French government with the rank of Officer in the Legion of Honour, and by the Belgian government with the honor of Commander of the Order of Leopold II of Belgium. In 1931, when King Prajadhipok of Siam came to the United States for an operation, he stayed at Ophir Hall, Reid's Renaissance Revival residence in Purchase, New York, designed by Stanford White, with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted, and built in 1892 as a dwelling for his father.[1][27]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "OGDEN MILLS REID OF HERALD TRIBUNE DIES OF PNEUMONIA; Ogden Mills Reid Dies of Pneumonia". The New York Times. 4 January 1947. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  2. ^ a b Sicherman, Barbara; Hurd Green, Carol (1980). Notable American women: the modern period : a biographical dictionary, Volume 4. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press. pp. 574–5. ISBN 0-674-62732-6.
  3. ^ Times, Special Cable To The New York (30 April 1931). "MRS. WHITELAW REID IS DEAD IN FRANCE; Widow of the Former U.S. Ambassador to England a Victim of Pneumonia.A FAMOUS PHILANTHROPIST Made Lavish Gifts to Many Causes--Hostess to Royalty DuringBrilliant London Career. Services in Paris Likely". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  4. ^ Times, Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph To The New York (16 December 1912). "WHITELAW REID DIES IN LONDON; Editor and Diplomat Passes Away at Dorchester House After Brief Illness". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  5. ^ "LADY WARD DEAD; AIDED CHARITIES; Daughter of Whitelaw Reid Was 78--Wed in Palace". The New York Times. 3 May 1962. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  6. ^ Times, Special To The New York (3 December 1938). "SIR JOHN WARD, 68, IS DEAD IN LONDON; Whitelaw Reid's Son-in-Law Had Served Four British Sovereigns as Equerry ROYALTY AT HIS MARRIAGE Boer and World Wars Veteran Had Been Decorated by France and Italy King Pleased by Marriage Son of First Earl Member of Victorian Order". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  7. ^ "REID WON FAME IN MANY FIELDS; Had Been a Journalist Half a Century -- Diplomat in Two European Capitals". The New York Times. 16 December 1912. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  8. ^ "AMBASSADOR REID'S DAUGHTER ENGAGED; Formally Announced by Her Parents She Will Wed the Hon. John Hubert Ward. EARL OF DUDLEY'S BROTHER Equerry in Waiting to King, Racing Man, Sportsman, and Six Feet High -- Wedding This Summer. Bingham Accused of Contempt". The New York Times. 30 April 1908. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  9. ^ Gladstone, William Ewart (1892). Free Trade. p. 144. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  10. ^ "REID-MILLS.; DR. MORGAN CONDUCTS THE CEREMONY AT MR. D.O. MILLS'S HOUSE". The New York Times. 27 April 1881. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  11. ^ a b Caro, Robert A. (1975). The power broker: Robert Moses and the fall of New York (Vintage Books ed.). New York: Random House. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-394-72024-1. Retrieved 3 February 2024. Reid, who had been Yale's first great swimmer, not only paid the team's expenses but, week after week, traveled up to New Haven from New York to do the coaching himself.
  12. ^ "OGDEN M. REID A REPORTER.; Starts on the Staff of His Father's Newspaper and Seems to Like It". The New York Times. 10 September 1908. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  13. ^ a b "OGDEN RIED". The New York Times. January 5, 1947. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  14. ^ "Ogden Mills Reid, son of Elisabeth Mills Reid". burlingamefoundingfamilies.wordpress.com. Peninsula Royalty: The Founding Families of Burlingame-Hillsborough. 8 July 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  15. ^ "Ogden M. Reid Gets Marriage License". The New York Times. 26 February 1911. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  16. ^ a b c "Helen Rogers Reid, Former Publisher of Tribune, Dies". Standard-Speaker. July 28, 1970. p. 24. Retrieved January 2, 2016 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  17. ^ "OGDEN MILLS REID WEDS.; Son of Ambassador Whitelaw Reid Married to Miss Helen M. Rogers". The New York Times. 15 March 1911. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  18. ^ Signorielli, Nancy, ed. (1996). Women in Communication: A Biographical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 312. ISBN 0313291640. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  19. ^ Noxon, Frank W. (June 26, 1920). "Take Three—New York's Big Three". The Fourth Estate. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  20. ^ "OGDEN REID TO WED HELEH MILES ROGERS; The Engagement of Ambassador Reid's Son to Mrs. Reid's Secretary Is Announced. MET AT DORCHESTER HOUSE Miss Rogers a Graduate of Barnard - Wedding to Occur in March at Her Home in Racine, Wis". The New York Times. 14 February 1911. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  21. ^ a b McFadden, Robert D. (19 April 2009). "Whitelaw Reid, Heir to New York Herald Tribune, Dies at 95". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  22. ^ "REID, Ogden Rogers - Biographical Information". bioguide.congress.gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  23. ^ "OGDEN REID RITES SET FOR TUESDAY; Service for Editor Will Be Held in St. Thomas Church Here-- Dewey Sends Condolences". The New York Times. January 5, 1947. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  24. ^ Krismann, Carol H. (2005). Encyclopedia of American Women in Business: M-Z. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 458. ISBN 0-313-32757-2. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  25. ^ Taft, William H. (2015). Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Journalists. Routledge. pp. 487–488. ISBN 9781317403241. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  26. ^ "OGDEN REID ESTATE PUT AT $9,478,112; But Net Is $3,185,700 After $5,780,702 for Charity -- Taxes Take $1,400,000 OGDEN REID ESTATE SET AT $9,478,112". The New York Times. 15 July 1949. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  27. ^ Foreman, John (6 November 2012). "Big Old Houses: But Would I Live Here?". New York Social Diary. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
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